Page 63 of Love Fire

“We look for Brent and Nate. For now, we just have to try to survive to get to them.”

“Alright.”

There’s no hesitation in her voice. I, myself, am a little scared. I can’t depend on my magic right now. Especially since I don’t know if the drug affected it.

My shooting skills have to shine through.

I walk out the hall crouching. Leanne follows my lead. We barely get to the top of the stairs when bullets aim towards us. I shield Leanne while taking out the men shooting.

Three of them fall. I counted about another five trying to hit us. They’re too much for us to handle alone and out in the open.

I pull Leanne down the stairs. Midway, I jump to the side to hide behind a wall of barrels. I fall on my ass before Leanne lands on top of me.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She responds with a pained nod. The bullets start coming at the barrels. We remain crouching while placing the rifle in the barrels’ crooks.

Leanne throws an extra clip towards me. We’re gonna have to snipe these motherfuckers out. I glance at my sister. With a nod, we let our rifles loose.

51

BRENT

Body after body crashes to the ground as Nate and I move throughout the warehouse. I don’t even hear the shots anymore, I just feel the recoil of the gun in my hand. Guard after guard falls dead as I put all my Draconis Fire training to use.

All that matters right now is Erin. She’s in rough shape, but I can’t move her. Not yet. Nate and I have to clear a path out of this fucking place first. We can’t risk Erin getting hurt any more.

Another guard rounds a corner, and Nate imminently shoots him between the eyes. I’m shocked by Nate. Being a doctor, I assumed he'd be more hesitant to kill people, but he has hardly flinched. I guess this is what he had to learn to survive in the Vincent family.

“I think we’ve carved a big enough chunk out of the guards,” I say. “With the SWAT team also here, we should be able to slip out. Let’s go get Erin.”

“Agreed,” Nate says with a nod.

But it seems the universe doesn’t agree. It can’t let me be right about anything lately. A horde of guards round a corner behind us and start opening fire.

“Run!”

The two of us sprint down the hall, bullets fly past us. I hold my gun behind me and blindly fire, hoping to give us some cover. We get to the end of the hall and turn a corner. I stop, take cover, and begin returning fire at the guards.

In all the chaos of gun fire, it takes me a moment to notice what’s happening to Nate, but I catch it in the corner of my eye. Deeper down this new hall, Torres has found us and has his hands wrapped around Nate’s throat.

“Three kids, and all of them are disappointments,” Torres growls at his son. “I knew I should’ve had a fourth. Maybe then I would have a kid to be proud of.”

I continue to fire at the guards while Nate struggles against his father’s grip. If I stop firing for even a moment, the guards will charge down the hallway and we’ll be overwhelmed. But Nate’s face starts to turn blue, I can’t let him die. I turn my gun on Torres and start moving down the hall to them.

“Don’t,” Nate manages to choke out. I look in his eyes and he’s being serious. Why? Why shouldn’t I end this right here and now. I listen to him, and hope I don’t live to regret it. I lower my gun but keep moving towards them.

Once Nate addresses me, Torres seems to finally notice me. His rage filled eyes land on me. In a single swift movement, Torres throws his son against the wall, and slams the but of his rifle into my head.

I fall to the floor, my head is ringing. It’s become a familiar feeling. I’ve been hit in the head more times in the last forty-eight hours than I have in the rest of my life combined. I can’t wait until I get to kill all these people.

Torres kicks my gun away from me. Through the ringing in my head, I hear the footsteps of the guards I was just shooting at getting closer. I’m running out of options. I need to act fast. Fuck, my head hurts.

“One daughter missing, another overdosed,” Torres points his at Nate. "You’re next.” He then looks at me. “And so is your friend.”

The guards’ footsteps stop. I hear even more gun fire down that hall. What is going on? I can’t risk looking around the corner. I need to focus on Torres, who himself is focusing on gloating over his son.

“You two really thought you could take me down,” Torres says with a laugh. He presses the barrel of the gun against Nate’s face. The footsteps in the hallway begin again.

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